SAY IT IN HEADINGS

Evening Star, Issue 20089, 1 February 1929, Page 6

SAY IT IN HEADINGS

HOW THEY DO IT IN LOS ANGELES The Americans want snap, pep. vim in their newspapers, and the sub-editors must have a hard time in Los Angeles keeping up the supply of peppy pars, oven in this town which has something to be peppy about (writes Lady Adams, in the Auckland ‘Star’). ‘ Photographer Bangs Dead Day After Fall of Picture.’ is a heading that intrigues the reader until on investigation it turns out that Bangs is not a verb, but the name of the unlucky man, one of whose pictures fell from" his wall the day before his sudden death. , _ ‘ Millions of Hannons Go to Charity ’ appears to have little meaning, as “Hannons” is found in no dictionary; but the explanation is that a certain wealthy Air and Mrs Hannon left much of their money to charitable purposes. If you read ‘ G.P.O. Split Fear Ends ’ aloud once or twice yon will understand finally that alarm at tho thought of possible dissension in Hie General Post Office has died down. “New Rejects Air Mail Bids’ seems at first to be a ease of bad grammar, till higher criticism comes to one’s aid, with tho reminder that Mr Now is Postmaster-General at Washington; after which it is easy to interpret the heading ‘ Log Nerve Infection Sends New to Bed.’

‘ Keen Queen Has Screen Dream ’ is an easy one when one remembers tho interest Queen Marie of Rumania has in the movies. ‘ Meek Honour Guest at Highway Fete ’ is not so Biblical as it sounds, Mr Meek being an official of standing in the Department of Public Works of California.

‘ Aviation Will Make Fur Fly, Says Londoner,’ is the zippy way that the Uipughtful views of a well-known London furrier are headed. He thinks that tho popularity of Hying will have -a quickening effect on the fur coat industry.

1 Work Vetoes Dam Royalties ’ had better not be read aloud for explanation. Air Work is also a prominent Californian official, this time in connection with tho water supply of Los Angeles.

“Self Punishment to Miss Film, Remark,’ puzzled me till I read the paragraph, and learnt that it would h t < a pity to let 1 The Patent Leather Kid ’ go unseen. ‘ Electric Chair Collects from Two for Killing ’ is the abrupt way that one learns of the death by electricity of two nidi for murdering a storekeeper. ‘Education Need Told Bar iJtonp ’ has its own explanation in small headlines. ‘ Past Failures Due to Poor Training,’ says professor. ‘ Must he as well Educated as Client,’ ho declares. ‘ Urges Higher Requirements for Admission.’

‘ Home Spat Nothing to 'This Court ’ still puzzles me. It is the tale of a Mrs Biddlefnan, nineteen years of age, to whose estranged husband a constable, called Bosshard, banded a card, ordering the lady to appear before a J.P. on a charge of petty larceny arising out of an argument with a former husband. Mrs Biddleman declined to accept the card from her estranged husband, and did not'appear in court, so she was arrested and put in the county gaol. She is to conduct her own defence. There is no mention of anybody called cither Spat or Homo in the account. In the language of the West, they’ve got one on me this time. ‘ Go-getters' Needed in the Ministry’ means perhaps clergymen who are adopts at collecting money are required. But then, again, it may not. ‘ Nation Unable to Pick Flower ’ only means that the United States of America is finding a difficulty in settling on a Federal emblem. ‘ His Shirts Make Wife Shiver, So Cold Husband Fires Her,’ is the. sad tale of the unhappy life of Mr and Mrs Jackson Q. Marshall. Mr Marshall’s taste in shirts was gaudy, and he would fling off his coat at any time, displaying to Ins startled friends and his abashed wife—shirts of blue, raaaenta, cherry, orange, nr lapis lazuli. More, his suspenders were of jarring hue. Criticism by his wife, Lotus, came, and she was told'if she didn’t like his taste she could go. He did not wait for her to go. He threw out her clothes. She followed them, he locked the door on her, and—she lias Her divorce.

‘ Disease Doffs to Auto ’ is solemnising. More deaths were caused by automobiles in California in the last four years than by typhoid fever, diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles, whooping cough, and infantile paralysis combined.

'Shift of Green Termed Genius.’ 1 much regret that I do not know what this heading means, as 1 tore it off my newspaper in a hurry, but 1 feci sura I am safe in thinking Hint Green is a notable official somewhere, and that he lias lately done some good work somewhere.

‘Woman in Check Case Gets Life’ is the succinct talc oi “ a self-styled ■ aviatm and devotee of a Holy City cult, in the Santa Cruz Mountains ” who has just been sentenced to life imprisonment for passing bad cheques four times. But' my feeing of complacency as 1 think of our more swiftly-understood newspaper headings get a check as I come on one little paragraph, topped by a few simple words: ‘ Rain Trace Felt in San Francisco.’